140. The garden snail

The common garden snail lays 30 eggs a year. Each is the size of a large pin head.

Each of them is a potential life saver.

The snail’s egg is the cheap, readily available and stable source of a chemical

that is used in determining the blood groups.

Previously this chemical was extracted from human blood. It takes five donors to provide a much of this

chemical as contained in a single snail egg!

The contents of the egg is extracted and dissolved in a saline solution, ready for use.

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